With hobby boxes topping $3K and grading fees ranging from $28 to $80 with 5-month wait times, is collecting still fun for anyone who doesn’t own a PayPal business account?

Remember when card collecting was about joy, trading, and hoarding base rookies like they meant something?

Now it’s a luxury flex.

Want to rip a hobby box with your kid? That’ll be $500, a background check, and a co-signer.

Grading?

Starts at $28. Want subgrades? $80.

Want it back this year? LOL.

Estimated return: somewhere between Christmas and the next Topps lawsuit.

“My 8-year-old saved up allowance for a hobby pack. We’re now entering year 2 of waiting for the redemption to come back.”

“Letting kids collect today feels like onboarding them to crypto.”

“Back in my day, ‘collecting’ didn’t involve a spreadsheet and a reseller license.”

The hobby has gone full Wall Street.

We’re not collecting cards — we’re applying for mortgages on them.

And yes, the prices are wild:

Hobby boxes: $400–$3,200

Grading a single card: $28–$80

Slabs worth keeping: 🤷‍♂

Even base cards — once the gateway drug to collecting — are considered cardboard trash unless serial-numbered, shiny, or auto’d by someone with a blue check.

So how’s a kid supposed to collect without a parent who runs a slab hustle on eBay?

🧠 The Big Picture

If kids can’t afford to join the hobby, the hobby eventually dies.

No new collectors = no future nostalgia = no long-term value.

We’re not building a community — we’re building a flipping economy with cardboard NFTs.

🛠 What Can We Do?

• Bring back affordable hobby products with actual value

• Design kid-focused sets that don’t feel like rejects from Panini Sticker Books

• Give base cards meaning again — tradeability, gamification, story

• And maybe, just maybe… grade what you love, not just what comps

🧃 Final Thought:

If your kid needs to Venmo you just to open a pack…

we’ve officially priced fun out of the

#CardCollecting #TheHobby #DadCollector #KidsInTheHobby #RetailRage #GradedCards #SlabTalk #SportsCards #BaseCardsMatter #CollectingNotFlipping #HobbyBurnout #RipResponsibly